Recruiting: Deep Water Blackout Options

[Method]

Status: [CLOSED]

Undisclosed Location, 12 February 2070, 21:37

Hiroshi Tada gripped the pistol in his hand as tightly as he could and tried to remember how many rounds he had fired. He knew that if he dropped the weapon he would never find it again in the dark. Stumbling around his office he collected the scattered papers that constituted his journal and made his way toward the back wall. He set the pistol down on a nearby file cabinet and produced a small screwdriver from his pocket. Breathing heavily he set to work.

Somewhere outside a noise shattered the stifling darkness. He heard footsteps in the hallway and lunged for his pistol, knocking it to the floor. His mind raced as he listened to the gun skitter across the linoleum and into the all-consuming blackness. A panic swept over him and his thoughts became muddled and confused. He dropped to his knees and frantically began groping in all directions to no avail.

Without warning he felt a presence nearby in the darkness. Terror gripped him and he stood deathly still, hoping whatever it was couldn't see him. Just as the thought passed through his mind he became aware of a faint light. It was subtle and soft and lacked any real source- more of a glow than a true illumination. It grew brighter as he sat peering into the shadows and waiting for his eyes to adjust. With each passing moment a calm settled upon his mind, and his panicked thoughts left him.

"Daddy?" The word pierced the fading darkness like a musical note, bright and melodic against the deafening silence. There, amongst the papers and debris of his disheveled office, stood a little girl.

"Sumiko!" He straightened himself, forgetting the gun altogether in his joy.

"What are you doing, daddy?" She stepped forward, moving closer to where he was kneeling and touched his face. A profound sense of relief washed over him and he gathered the little girl up in his arms. Sobbing he held her and rocked gently in the dim glow. "You don't need that gun daddy."

"I know, little one. Everything is better now!" The words seemed to roll of his tongue without effort like the tears streaming down his face. "There were bad people here, but they're gone now." He glanced over at the gun, somehow ashamed that he had ever thought he needed it.

"Don' cry, daddy,"said the little girl softly, the way a child parodies her mother "I'm here now." She hugged him tightly around his neck and buried her tiny head in his chest.

Suddenly a strange thought occurred to him. It surfaced in his mind like a ripple in a tranquil pond, and threatened to disappear as quickly as it had come. He struggled to retain it, forcing his mind into focus, but his thoughts felt heavy and unwieldy. With great effort he grasped at the fleeting memory before it could vanish.

"What are you doing here, Sumiko?" The words felt awkward in his mouth and sounded strange, almost as though he were hearing someone else speak them.

"What do you mean, daddy?" She gazed into his teary eyes with a tortured look.

"You... you died 7 years ago!?"

"It's okay daddy, I live down here now." Her grip tightened around his neck. "We all live down here now."

[Method]

Since my last three PbP games have died slow deaths I think I'm going to bite the bullet and run one myself. For this game I'm going to recycle the premise of a failed PbP game that died some years ago, which was in turn based on an adventure I wrote many many years ago. This will be my first attempt at running a PbP game, but I've been GMing SR since the first edition so we'll see how it goes. Before I get to the details:

A Caveat

[ Spoiler ]

As many of you probably know, most PbP games around here have an abysmally short life span. I figure the best way to overcome this is to develop a story people can get into. I see my role as a GM to facilitate collaborative storytelling so that all parties can feel invested in a shared vision. Your role as potential players will be to commit yourselves to the game. I don't mean to sound crass or anything, but my time is at a premium right now (medical school) so I really can't afford to do this unless people are serious. Please don't submit a character unless you plan on sticking around for a while.

That having been said there may be times when I simply cannot post (the week before I take my boards comes to mind). While my goal will be to keep the game advancing on a weekly or biweekly basis, there may be times when its just not possible for me to do so. But I'm committed to telling the story until its end so long as people are willing, even if that takes awhile (which seems to be the case in most successful PbP games here on the boards). I'm hoping to find a group of people that plan on remaining active in this community for some time to come, and won't disappear if there are short periods of inactivity. Again, my goal will be to avoid these as much as possible.

What I'm looking for:
- 3-4 players
- A reasonable commitment to post at least 2-3 times per week in either thread (IC or OoC) while the story is advancing
- People willing to stick it out if the game gets put on hold a little here and there

I'd like to keep the group small to minimize wait times and schedule conflicts. I would maybe consider taking a 5th player if there are character proposals I like and I'm reasonably convinced that said player is committed to sticking around. That is a very big maybe...

Some preference will be given to certain players from Fenris' "Dancing within the Void"� or "Reflections of a New/Old Moon" games that might want to join this one. After that it I'll be looking for characters that are a “good fit'�. Unfortunately it's hard to say exactly what that will look like until I see some of the proposals.


Game Overview

[ Spoiler ]

Premise: The group is hired for a deep-sea rescue and salvage mission.

Setting: Seattle and the North Pacific.

System: SR4 RAW (Plus all available books).

Themes: I'm shooting for a mix of high-seas adventure and Lovecraft-esque horror and suspense. Oh, and lots of sharks with freakin' laser beams... J/K

Tone: I tend to lean more towards "gritty, violent dystopia where man struggles to maintain his humanity" and not so much "pink mohawk and neo-anarchy"Â?, though subtle humor is definitely a plus.

"Level"Â?: My preference is that the characters start off sort of mid-level. Not uber-professional epic super heros, but not poor starving street rats either. Just the right mix of both would be great. I"m envisioning characters that are close enough to the grit and blood to remember what it was like but smart or desperate enough that they never want to go back. Please note also that my use of the term "street" is figurative- if you want your character to come from some other background (military, corporate, whatever) that would be great. I'm more interested in understanding why they chose the life of a shadowrunner over what they had before.

Characters: Any character that would work in a smuggler/cyberpirate campaign will do fine, but don't paint yourself into a corner with an overly specialized character designed specifically for a water-based game (water elementalists, seal-shifters, diving experts, etc). Well-rounded characters of all types (combat specialists, magicians, hackers, riggers, faces, infiltrators, smugglers, etc) will find a place in this adventure. Also, I'd like the PCs to start as an established team to cut down on all the "getting to know each other" posts. Keep that in mind (i.e.- no "lone wolf" types please).

I tend to prefer more versatile characters to highly specialized ones. I like characters who's background, theme or style set them apart, not just that they are the best at one particular job. I'm also really interested in seeing characters that cross the traditional archetype boundaries (street sam, mage, decker). Of coarse, if everyone wants clearly defined roles within the team, I'm fine with some division of labor.

I'll say right now I'm not a big fan of min-maxing, as it tends to play to the extreme strengths and weakness inherent within the rules. Please do not submit a Mr Lucky, a Pornomancer or for fuck's sake a Dragon. Any such character will be summarily dismissed along with their player.

Characters will not be officially accepted until I have a completed sheet, but please present your concept here before submitting sheets.

[Method]

Players:
- Blackhat: Joseph Carter
- OneRonin: Desmond Connelly
- Crizh: Petit Petwo
- pragma: Guy Freebird
- Direradiant: safecracker / mechanic / infiltrator
- Lidralyn: some thing secret.... muahahaha....

Backup Players:
- Dakka: deckhand / mechanic / jack of all trades
- Mickle5125: bounty hunter / tracker
- Nigel: ?

Character Builds:
(Please note that any limits I have added to chargen are intended to help you design the kinds of character I envision for this campaign.)

450 BP
Except where noted below all limits in the BBB apply (< 225 BP in attributes, Rating 6, Avail 12, etc).

- No limit on negative qualities but you only get BPs for the first 35
- I don't give “free” build points for Incompetent, Allergies, Addictions, Phobias, etc. If you are taking such a flaw I reserve the right to ask you where when and how you envision it affecting the character.
- I am of the crowd that thinks the modal (most common) human attribute or skill rating is around 2 and most NPCs are inferior to a good shadowrunner. Don't worry too much about min-maxing your dice pools. DPs between 10 and 16 will likely be quite functional and reasonable. I'm not going to impose any hard caps, because I trust you guys.

Contacts:
Free contact points equal to base Charisma x 4
Additional Contacts may be purchased with BP as usual.
Give me a brief character description for each contact including:
- Name and Alias
- Basic concept
- The nature of the relationship (including modes of payment)
- What they’re good at / what kind of stuff they know
- How your PC generally contacts them (including where they hangout)

[Nigel]

I'm fairly interested in this, but I'm not sure I can devise a character. Are you all right with accepting a moderately new player? I don't know a whole lot about the fluff, but some, and I know a fair bit of the rules (along with having all the PDFs for all editions accessible at home). You should look at my posts in Greenhorns if you want an example of my usual posting style and so on.

[BlackHat]

I saw you left a placeholder for character building rules - did you intend for people to throw up their concepts first, and then reference the rules when it is time to stat them out, or would you rather we wait until you've gotten that post up (I suppose it depends on how different than standard they will be).

[Dakka]

Place holder till I return from class, but am looking at a Weapon specialist built along the lines of a SEAL or very much like the SR1 &2 Nercenary that was light on cyber (toys) and heavy on skills.



Really interested!

[TheOneRonin]

Place holder till I return from class, but am looking at a Weapon specialist built along the lines of a SEAL or very much like the SR1 &2 Nercenary that was light on cyber (toys) and heavy on skills.



Really interested!

If you don't mind doubling up on the number of former SEALs characters, I would love to play an underwater demo specialist. In fact, Dakka's character and mine could both be buddies from the same unit.

Dakka, not sure if you are interested, but Special Operations is a RL hobby of mine, and I have tons of resources on those types of people/operations. Let me know if you want to tap any of that while creating your character.

[TheOneRonin]

I could have an idea for a former SAS CT guy that could work really well too, if you don't want the characters having extremely similar backgrounds.

[crizh]

I have a whole bunch of ideas and am also a bit frustrated with games that don't seem to go anywhere.

What would be a good fit?

I've a got some ideas for a TM but I'm not sure that's ideal for The Abyss meets Cthulhu. I have another concept I'm working on in another thread revolving around using Shapechange as an infil/exfil-tration technique that might fit the bill here. I spent all morning reading about Eels on wikipedia for that one which is why I'm late to this thread even though I knew it was coming.

You'd be surprised how interesting the breeding habits of Eels turns out to be....

[BlackHat]

You'd be surprised how interesting the breeding habits of Eels turns out to be....

o.O *disturbed*

I had some ideas for a rigger (probably a smuggler, salvager), which sounds pretty useful in a setting like this. Pulling the details together while I go through some meetings this morning. I am thinking this is the direction I will go, but don't let that stop anyone else from posting similar ideas.

Since it sounds like crizh is interested in a mage, if you don't have access to the Cyberpirates sourcebook from 3rd edition (or is it older than that, 2nd edition?) I'll repost a couple of tips I thought were useful (and not immediately apparent). Remember that LOS attack spells are a million times more useful on the sea - both for us, and for our enemies. With a good pair of optical binoculars, you would be able to see, and attack accurately, farther that most PC-available weapons can fire. Maybe that is obvious, but I don't play a lot of mages, so when I read that, I was like, WOW. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Also, if we go with a smuggling or piracy background for the team, a couple good masking spells, or a spirit's concealment power would hide our vessel better than any vehicle mod we can start with, and the movement power would make travel times a breeze. *shrugs* some things to think about besides shapechange - which I also think is a good idea.

[DireRadiant]

I am thinking of a speed thrill addicted ork Eurotrash Socialist Socialite street sam babe. The result of high class childhood indulgent political activism taken to the active extreme. After the incident involving some embarrassing, but profitable, simsense recordings hitting the the most popular euro child education boards involving three education ministers and a few members of a now ex communicated Greek Orthodox sect she's had to renounce her name and abdicate her title and wander the world outside of Europe. In the intervening years scrounging around for work, she's begun to appreciate just how much she's given up in leaving the world of regular cost of living payments from 500 year old trusts.

[Lidralyn]

Hey method, I got your PM, I will edit this later, headed to work right now at a job I can't get to a computer from, soon as I get home I will post more. I am going to make some form of mage, but I read over your overview now and will decide exactly what kind as I work.

[TheOneRonin]

The more I think about it, the more I want to go with the SAS guy. In fact, the is gonna be former SBS instead of SAS. Demo and Maritime expertise, big-time gambler and treasure hunter type. Fiercely loyal to his team (considers them family), but doesn't really handle authority well outside of that. And ALWAYS seems to be getting himself in over his head. I also have some very good ideas about his reasons for leaving (involuntarily) the service and working in the shadows.

BTW, I'm not having a lot of luck putting him together with 400 BP. My skills alone are over 300 BP, and I don't have a single one above rating 4 (not counting specializations). PLEASE tell me you are willing to work with us on that...

[crizh]

BTW, I'm not having a lot of luck putting him together with 400 BP. My skills alone are over 300 BP, and I don't have a single one above rating 4 (not counting specializations). PLEASE tell me you are willing to work with us on that...

Tell me about it. Trying to build a well-rounded mage on 400BP is nigh impossible, I almost always end up cutting corners in a way that usual ends up with somebody claiming that having any stats at 1 is akin to satanism...

[pragma]

Interesting game. I'm somewhat entranced by the idea of a treasure hunter and I'd like to play a hacker -- maybe some kind of board shorts and buzz cut type from LA, southern California incarnate, who has made some modicum of fortune with underwater salvage in the flooded area.

I expect to be pretty free over the summer and I can usually post a few times a week.

[crizh]

o.O *disturbed*

I think I eventually decided newts are more interesting.

Not least for the obvious Pythonisms...

[Mickle5125]

This sounds interesting AND usable for one of my concepts!

I've been playing with the idea of a bounty hunter/tracker type orc, and I think I can adapt it to fit this game nicely.

Only problem is: Starting on tuesday, I'm not going to be able to post until around June 7, which sorta messes with the whole "starting the game" situation.

[TheOneRonin]

Tell me about it. Trying to build a well-rounded mage on 400BP is nigh impossible, I almost always end up cutting corners in a way that usual ends up with somebody claiming that having any stats at 1 is akin to satanism...

Yeah, I ALWAYS run into this problem when trying to build anyone who is former special forces. Here's what I have so far, and it ends up being 308 BP!

Group-Athletics: 4
Group-Close Combat: 3
Group-Outdoors: 3
Group-Stealth: 4

Automatics(SMGs): 4(+2)
Pistols(SemiAutos): 3(+2)
Longarms(Shotguns): 3(+2)
Demolitions(Breaching): 4(+2)
Dodge: 4
First Aid(Bullet Wounds): 2(+2)
Diving(SCUBA): 3(+2)
Pilot Ground(Auto): 2(+2)
Pilot Water(Motorboat): 2(+2)
Parachuting: 3
Perception: 4
Etiquette(Street): 2(+2)
Con(Fast Talk): 2(+2)

That's a well rounded list, and includes just about everything an SBS guy would be trained in. I don't even having anything at rating 5 higher. But yeah, that's 308 BPs...

[BlackHat]

Yeah, that's the thing about making a jack-of-all-trades (master-of-none). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) You end up with a lot of skills at rating 2 or so, and a lot of specialties. I certainly wouldn't mind if Method decided to go higher with the BP, but I'm going to assume its standard character creation for now. You could shave 100 points off of that character by going with skill ratings of 2... but I assume the picture you have in your head is of someone who is pretty skilled at those things.

Probably won't get the details of my concept solidified until I get home tonight (but the ones everyone else is coming up with sound great) - but the good news is the wife works tonight, so I can devote the whole night to character creation.

[Mickle5125]

Yeah, I ALWAYS run into this problem when trying to build anyone who is former special forces. Here's what I have so far, and it ends up being 308 BP!

Group-Athletics: 4
Group-Close Combat: 3
Group-Outdoors: 3
Group-Stealth: 4

Automatics(SMGs): 4(+2)
Pistols(SemiAutos): 3(+2)
Longarms(Shotguns): 3(+2)
Demolitions(Breaching): 4(+2)
Dodge: 4
First Aid(Bullet Wounds): 2(+2)
Diving(SCUBA): 3(+2)
Pilot Ground(Auto): 2(+2)
Pilot Water(Motorboat): 2(+2)
Parachuting: 3
Perception: 4
Etiquette(Street): 2(+2)
Con(Fast Talk): 2(+2)

That's a well rounded list, and includes just about everything an SBS guy would be trained in. I don't even having anything at rating 5 higher. But yeah, that's 308 BPs...

drop the specializations and that should cut a fair number of BPs off...

[pragma]

I think you'd also do a lot better buying up the firearms group than going with the separate skills and specializations. You'd lose some dice, but firearms at 3 would save you 16 points. Firearms at 4 would save you 6.

[Method]

Wow, great response so far. I like some of the character concepts- though its looking a little combat heavy. Not a problem necessarily except I'd feel obligated to make things more combat oriented, and that does tend to bog down on this medium. I might have to reconsider my player limit...

To answer a few questions:
- Blackhat: I'll post build guidelines when I have a better idea about who and how many are in. I don't want people to spend a lot of time and energy number crunching if I can't fit them in. Characters should be close to standard (but see my comment below regarding BP). For now I want this to be a discussion of how you guys want the team to look, feel and operate.

- As a general comment: a mercenary-type team would fit the adventure as well but I'll leave that up to the final players to decide.

- TheOneRonin: I'd be willing to wiggle a little on the BP (maybe 450?) in order to facilitate *well rounded characters* (which seems to be the goal, so thats good).

- Nigel: I am willing to take on a new player or two, so long as you understand what you're getting in to. As I've stated my main concern is finding people who are in for the long haul.

- Mickle5125: That could be tough... You wouldn't miss much of the actual game, as we will likely just be starting the IC/OoC. But there will be a lot of preplanning that will be taking place in that time frame, and I think thats pretty crucial to getting everyone involved. If we can work something out I'll let you know.

In terms of timing, I am happy to report that I just took my last final for my pre-clinical years ( (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rollin.gif) ) Starting next week I will be studying hard core for the boards, but should have time to read here and there and post nightly. I'd like to get the ball rolling with IC/OoC in another week or two.

I'll leave this [Open] to submissions for another day or so and then [Close] it so we can see what we have on the table and how it all fits together. Actually, reading through the summary, we already have about twice the number of people I was hoping to fit in. I'm going to put things on hold so we can see how this might fit together. If people drop, loose interest or just don't fit I'll consider opening it again.

Also- I had an idea that might allow me to fit in another player. Basically converting an NPC to a plot driving PC. It might be a good role for one of the newer players, but we'd have to talk. If anyone is interested let me know.

[Nigel]

I hate when people skip out, and I can't stand letting down the rest of the party like that. Also, I enjoy RPing so I'm definitely going to be staying in, if I come up with a concept. That NPC-PC idea is sounding pretty good, as I have a lot of difficulty making a character that isn't ueberfocused.

[BlackHat]

- Blackhat: I'll post build guidelines when I have a better idea about who and how many are in. I don't want people to spend a lot of time and energy number crunching if I can't fit them in. Characters should be close to standard (but see my comment below regarding BP). For now I want this to be a discussion of how you guys want the team to look, feel and operate.

Sounds good. I was mostly asking because if there were some restrictions or house rules (no items over availability 10, for example), it might impact what resources we have available. We might come up with a good idea, and find it doesn't work - as long as its pretty much standard, I should be able to get a picture together.

As far as the look and feel of the group, since we've been told the adventure will revolve around a deep-sea rescue and salvage mission, I think an established team with a reputation for that sort of thing (Ex-Navy SEALS, totally useful for rescue ops, treasure hunters is probably experience with salvage operation, etc) would work out better than a team known for piracy, smuggling, etc - except that, I assume that since shadowrunners are being sent in, this is sort of an off-the-books mission - so some of those skills might still end up being useful.

I could see us being sort of an A-Team of the Sea... for the most part, doing treasure-hunting and salvage (and keeping would-be pirates at bay), but occasionally doing a mission for somebody, or picking up a distress-call and rescuing someone. Seems like, if someone had a rescue mission, that would be the sort of team they would want... rather than criminals-of-the-sea who would be as likely to steal whatever they're supposed to salvage, as return it.

[Dakka]

Instead of paying complete attention I wandered off an began pondering the concept of an old Merc (still could be a former SEAL) that has been Leonized to go back into "the game".

Blackhat does make a good point and why not smoke cubans and sip on mojitos in the Carib League between missions/salvage ops.